12 Mar 08
Originally posted by eamon oThis was a continuation of another thread in General.
do you really want to know? this aint a schoolroom where the teacher throws out a statement and says "discuss".........
i bet you have your own views, why not kick off the topic by revealing your thoughts on the subject?
Thread 89168
13 Mar 08
Originally posted by PalynkaI think you'll find I agree that it influences and that I would indeed be different if I had been born in China. My argument was that I do not identify with the set of what defines a culturally English person.
Nationalities are important in the sense that there is an associated culture (which can be a mix of individual ones) with them. The way one views family, work, religion, personal relationships, marriage has been influenced vastly by the culture in which they were immersed. The corollary is that the more you live in a multicultural society, the less is nation ...[text shortened]... blue in the face, but we all know he'd be a different person had he been born in, say, China.
I would have thought you were above strawmen.
13 Mar 08
Originally posted by StarrmanCome on, that comment was just a closing jab to get you back in the fray.
I think you'll find I agree that it influences and that I would indeed be different if I had been born in China. My argument was that I do not identify with the set of what defines a culturally English person.
I would have thought you were above strawmen.
I really have no beef with you. The rest of my argument stands, and I think you'll also agree with much of what I said.
13 Mar 08
1 edit
The post that was quoted here has been removedYou tell me.
As to the second statement, I've never made any claim to remove the cultural identity of others, only that supporting one country against others for the notion of a national solidarity is mob mentality. What is it about England that makes you able to stand next to someone you've never met and say you have a common interest? That you both live in the same country? How does an accident of birth make me and you share the same views? We might have some things we share opinions on, but to take a couple of those micro-aspects and turn them to a macro-aspect concerning a national group is extrapolation on a grand level. To then add pride on top of that turns my stomach. Pride is dangerous enough a playtoy as it is and when it concerns something as powerful as a nation, that's not something I want to say about myself.
13 Mar 08
Tim! What a great rec, mate. I'm buying it now! 🙂
The English people, however, annoy Gill no end: this "ugly race," in his words, afflicted by an "earthbound pedantic spirituality" and "puce-faced, finger-jabbing, spittle-flecked politics," a people "impervious to fondness, sympathy or attraction" and susceptible to "a Pooterish yearning for a Fascist order."
We don't even have to go beyond this thread to sense what the author describes, gosh!
13 Mar 08
2 edits
The post that was quoted here has been removedI'm not sure I have the energy...
What I disagree with is that I might know nothing about someone and yet come to stand shoulder to shoulder with them on an accident of birth.
And try not to talk in metaphors, it makes it a lot harder to have any idea what you're saying.